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China is gearing up to activate the world's first 'clean' commercial nuclear reactor (molten salt thorium. waterless cooling)
LiveScience ^ | 7-23-21 | Ben Turner

Posted on 07/28/2021 10:27:48 AM PDT by dynachrome

Chinese government scientists have unveiled plans for a first-of-its-kind, experimental nuclear reactor that does not need water for cooling.

The molten-salt nuclear reactor, which runs on liquid thorium rather than uranium, is expected to be safer than traditional reactors because the molten salt cools and solidifies quickly when exposed to the air, insulating the thorium, so that any potential leak would spill much less radiation into the surrounding environment compared with leaks from traditional reactors.

The prototype reactor is expected to be completed next month, with the first tests beginning as early as September. This will pave the way for the building of the first commercial reactor, slated for construction by 2030.

As this type of reactor doesn't require water, it will be able to operate in desert regions. The location of the first commercial reactor will be in the desert city of Wuwei, and the Chinese government has plans to build more across the sparsely populated deserts and plains of western China, as well as up to 30 in countries involved in China's "Belt and Road" initiative — a global investment program that will see China invest in the infrastructure of 70 countries.

(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Reference; Science
KEYWORDS: china; nuclear; reactor; thorium
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To: dynachrome

How much can you trust Red China? There things always break. How safe can they be?


21 posted on 07/28/2021 10:58:48 AM PDT by Forward the Light Brigade ( ALWAYS GO FORWARD AND NEVER GO BACK.)
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To: dynachrome

How much can you trust Red China? There things always break. How safe can they be?


22 posted on 07/28/2021 10:58:48 AM PDT by Forward the Light Brigade ( ALWAYS GO FORWARD AND NEVER GO BACK.)
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To: dynachrome

This is not the first reactor to be cooled without water. The US built the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) at Hanford beginning in the mid 70’s. It was cooled by liquid sodium and and tested to perform if the pumping system quit. It was shown the the liquid sodium provided enough creep through the system to maintain cooling until reactor shutdown.

Operation of the facility also produced medical isotopes to use to fight cancers and there was hope that that mission alone would justify continued operations beyond that a purely scientific reactor research project. Alas, the sky is falling anti nuke crowd won out and the Clinton administration shut the plant down.


23 posted on 07/28/2021 11:03:48 AM PDT by shotgun
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To: Bayard

In the USA, the environmentalists have succeeded in demonizing all forms of nuclear energy research.


24 posted on 07/28/2021 11:16:42 AM PDT by reg45 (Barack 0bama: Gone but not forgiven.)
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To: alloysteel

India is interested because there are significant amounts of Thorium in India.


25 posted on 07/28/2021 11:21:23 AM PDT by reg45 (Barack 0bama: Gone but not forgiven.)
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To: dynachrome

26 posted on 07/28/2021 11:22:18 AM PDT by colorado tanker
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To: dynachrome

We tried liquid metal cooled(no water) reactors back when USS Seawolf went to sea? It was a disaster, due to corrosion, IIRC. And the fact that if there was a leak or doing any kind of maintenance, the solvents that needed to be used, and danger of fire or explosions were real problems.


27 posted on 07/28/2021 11:23:38 AM PDT by rlmorel (Leftists are The Droplet of Sewage in a gallon of ultra-pure clean water.)
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To: Seruzawa

Bingo. They would probably build it in the valley near the Three Gorges dam, with sub-par materials.


28 posted on 07/28/2021 11:24:44 AM PDT by rlmorel (Leftists are The Droplet of Sewage in a gallon of ultra-pure clean water.)
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To: Vaquero

Hahahahahahaha


29 posted on 07/28/2021 11:25:14 AM PDT by rlmorel (Leftists are The Droplet of Sewage in a gallon of ultra-pure clean water.)
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To: dynachrome

A reactor that we invented at Oak Ridge, made all the information public and then destroyed.


30 posted on 07/28/2021 11:25:31 AM PDT by Sequoyah101 (Politicians are only marginally good at one thing, being politicians. Otherwise they are fools.)
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To: reg45

We have huge reserves of it here in the USA. As a matter of fact, I think it is readily available in a lot of countries.

We don’t really know how much is available worldwide, but it is certainly more than we know, because...we haven’t really been looking for it the way we look for oil.

The harder we look, the more we will find...:)


31 posted on 07/28/2021 11:29:07 AM PDT by rlmorel (Leftists are The Droplet of Sewage in a gallon of ultra-pure clean water.)
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To: dynachrome

I am all in on Thorium, though. I am puzzled as to why (except for the bad word “radioactivity”) it has not been pursued.

I guess that word is enough for a lot of people.


32 posted on 07/28/2021 11:30:56 AM PDT by rlmorel (Leftists are The Droplet of Sewage in a gallon of ultra-pure clean water.)
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To: Bayard

We did - fifty years ago.

But it wasn’t useful for producing atomic weapons, so it was discontinued.


33 posted on 07/28/2021 11:34:03 AM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: shotgun; dynachrome

IIRC, the USS Seawolf used electromagnetic pumps to move the liquid sodium. Very whizzy for late 1950’s technology...


34 posted on 07/28/2021 11:38:38 AM PDT by rlmorel (Leftists are The Droplet of Sewage in a gallon of ultra-pure clean water.)
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To: rlmorel

And the scary part about that is liquid sodium does not react well with water. But fortunately the system is pressurized and there are no leaks


35 posted on 07/28/2021 11:45:47 AM PDT by shotgun
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To: shotgun

LOL, and they put it on a submarine!

I think the major problem was when they had to do maintenance, the solvent that they had to use on the liquid sodium was EXTREMELY nasty.

But hey...they probably had some poor squids doing it!


36 posted on 07/28/2021 11:48:19 AM PDT by rlmorel (Leftists are The Droplet of Sewage in a gallon of ultra-pure clean water.)
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To: Bayard
Why aren’t we testing one here?

I believe we tested one or more in the 1960's but the research was shut down by the government, so they could play favorites.

China is leading the pack on these reactors at the moment.

37 posted on 07/28/2021 11:55:37 AM PDT by marktwain (President Trump and his supporters are the Resistance. His opponents are the Reactionaries. )
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To: dynachrome

China copied this technology from notes & data about the Oak Ridge Tennessee reactor from the 1950’s.

The NRC Czar killed that project and all the documentation was stored in a closet at an Oak Ridge Elementary school.

It was located by Kirk Sorensen, digitized and put on-line. The US is enraptured by solar & wind and ignored it, for the most part.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbyr7jZOllI
The Thorium Molten-Salt Reactor: Why Didn’t This Happen (and why is now the right time?)

Meanwhile, China put 700 TEAMS of engineers working on that information.


38 posted on 07/28/2021 12:36:32 PM PDT by BwanaNdege ( Experience is the best teacher, but if you can accept it 2nd hand, the tuition is less!)
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To: Red Badger

Man, I sure miss back when Bloom County was funny...


39 posted on 07/28/2021 12:42:08 PM PDT by Kommodor (Solzhenitsyn was an optimist...)
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To: Kevmo

“10,000 years from now we will still have to wear masks to visit Chernobyl. “

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DWnjcSo9J0
Chernobyl - What It’s Like Today


40 posted on 07/28/2021 12:43:23 PM PDT by BwanaNdege ( Experience is the best teacher, but if you can accept it 2nd hand, the tuition is less!)
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